Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar says there is no chance of a snap Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion. It comes as the Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) is set to open its nom­i­na­tions next month, a move po­lit­i­cal sci­en­tist Dr Bish­nu Ra­goonath says is proac­tive and strate­gic.

The de­ci­sion was tak­en dur­ing the par­ty’s Gen­er­al Coun­cil meet­ing on Sat­ur­day, where it was an­nounced that nom­i­na­tions will, in the first in­stance, be ac­cept­ed from elec­toral dis­tricts not cur­rent­ly held by the PNM.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Per­sad-Bisses­sar stat­ed, “Ab­solute­ly no chance of snap Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion.”

It has been re­port­ed that coun­cil­lors have been en­gag­ing in walk­a­bouts in their elec­toral dis­tricts, prompt­ing ques­tions as to whether the 2027 elec­tion may oc­cur soon­er rather than lat­er.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia, Dr Ra­goonath not­ed that the PNM’s move was en­tire­ly with­in the par­ty’s dis­cre­tion, not­ing that whether the PNM sees it fit and rel­e­vant to in­vite nom­i­na­tions at this stage is a mat­ter of in­ter­nal strat­e­gy.

“They know full well the up­hill task that they face in those elec­toral dis­tricts, and if they know that up­hill task, then putting their prospec­tive can­di­dates on the ground now may very well al­low peo­ple to get ac­cus­tomed to these peo­ple and let these peo­ple al­so serve as shad­ow coun­cil­lors.”

He fur­ther not­ed that by pri­ori­tis­ing nom­i­na­tions in seats cur­rent­ly held by the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC), the PNM ap­pears to be sig­nalling a de­lib­er­ate strat­e­gy aimed at strength­en­ing its pres­ence in tra­di­tion­al­ly non-PNM ar­eas.

Dr Ra­goonath said this ap­proach al­lows the par­ty to be­gin build­ing re­la­tion­ships with prospec­tive can­di­dates ear­ly, which could help boost their pop­u­lar­i­ty, cred­i­bil­i­ty, and on-the-ground pres­ence over time.

“It is a proac­tive move, and I can­not fault them for that. It is giv­ing peo­ple time to get ac­cus­tomed to faces on the ground.”

Ac­cord­ing to po­lit­i­cal an­a­lyst Dr Shane Mo­hammed, the ex­er­cise will al­low the PNM’s leader, Pen­ne­lope Beck­les, to put her stamp on the ex­er­cise and step out of the shad­ows of its pre­vi­ous leader, Dr Kei­th Row­ley.

“They got ac­cus­tomed to the bul­ly­ing as­pect, the dis­mis­sive as­pect of Dr Kei­th Row­ley that they all em­bod­ied, and they all en­joyed. That is not Ms Beck­les’ de­meanour, and the soon­er they give her the time to ob­serve them and their fool­ish­ness that has been al­lowed to hap­pen, the bet­ter they will heal. The an­nounce­ment is not un­rea­son­able; she wants to build up­on flaws that may emerge.”

In light of the PNM’s de­c­la­ra­tion to be­gin nom­i­na­tions for the 2027 Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Elec­tion, Mick­ela Pan­day, po­lit­i­cal leader of the Pa­tri­ot­ic Front, con­firmed that dis­cus­sions were in progress in her par­ty.

In­ter­im po­lit­i­cal leader of the Na­tion­al Trans­for­ma­tion Al­liance, Nor­man Din­di­al, al­so told Guardian Me­dia that noth­ing was off the ta­ble and that col­lab­o­ra­tion may be con­sid­ered in the fu­ture. He al­so said the par­ty’s in­ter­nal or­gan­i­sa­tion and strat­e­gy were be­ing eval­u­at­ed.